"Reports received to date indicate that Engineer Jones of the passenger train, who lost his life in the accident, was alone responsible for the accident as train No. 83 which was obstructing the main track at Vaughan sawing by train No. 26 was properly protected by flagman, who had gone back a distance of 3000 feet, where he had placed toropedos on the rail; then continued north a further distance of 500 to 800 feet, where he stood and gave signals to train No. l; which signals, however, were apparently not observed by Engineer Jones: nor is it believed he heard the explosion of the torpedoes as his train continued toward the station at a high rate of speed, notwithstanding the fact it was moving up a grade; collision occurring at a point 2l0 feet north of the north passing track switch. It is also stated that Engineer Jones of train No.l failed to sound the whistle for the station when passing the whistle board."

Jones entered the service of this company as fireman in March, l888, was promoted to position of engineer in February, l890, since which date his record has been as follows:

Engineer Jones was promoted to position of engineer in February, l900, and had a reasonably good record, not having been disciplined for the past three years. He had been assigned to passenger service between Memphis and Canton about 60 days before collision occurred and at the first opportunity thereafter Supt. King had talked to him about the importance of the trains to which he had been assigned, instructiong him to use good judgement, especially in stormy weather; to keep close lookout for signals at all times, particularly in approaching and passing through stations and yards; adding that the trains he would handle had been successfully handled by other engineers who were on the runs and that satisfactory time had been made. He particularly instructed Jones not to attempt to do any reckless running with the view of establishing a record of making fast time, or better time than the other men on the runs. Jones' work up to the time of the accident had been satisfactory."

Soon after Casey’s death it was first sung by a humble engine wiper and friend of Casey’s known as Wallace Saunders to the tune of a popular song of the time known as “Jimmie Jones.” Making up little songs and ballads about people appeared to have been his specialty. He was known to sing and whistle as he went about his work cleaning the huge steam engines, so naturally he would sing about his dead friend. In the words of Casey’s wife: "Wallace's admiration of Casey was little short of idolatry. He used to brag mightly about Mr. Jones even when Casey was only a freight engineer." But Saunders, being illiterate and only interested in using the song as a vehicle to express his grief and admiration for his friend, never had his original version copyrighted, and thus there is no way of knowing precisely what words he sang.

In 1900 an ice cream maker consisted of a pail of cream inside a bucket of ice with a hand cranked churn.

By 1900, the bicycle has been on the road and in development for 83 years. Bicycles are the most common means of transportation. Mass production of reasonably-priced bicycles allows working men to use them for transportation and leisure.

An international force of eight treaty powers–the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Britain, Austria-Hungary—marches into Beijing and ransacks the Forbidden City in reaction to the Chinese violence against foreigners in the Boxer Rebellion.

On September 8, 1900, a killer hurricane struck the Texas coastal city of Galveston. This hurricane would become the greatest natural disaster, by number of deaths, in United States history: 8,000 by accepted figures, perhaps as many as 12,000. Of that total, 6,000 perished in Galveston alone. The tragedy killed more Americans than any other natural disaster, indeed, more than the legendary Johnstown Flood, the San Francisco Earthquake, the 1938 New England Hurricane and the Great Chicago Fire combined.

In 1901, the education system of China was reformed to allow the admission of girls and the curriculum was changed from the study of the Classics and Confucian studies to the study of Western mathematics, science, engineering, and geography. The civil service examination was changed to reflect this new curriculum, and in 1905 it was abandoned altogether. The Chinese began to send its youth to Europe and to Japan to study the new sciences, such as economics, and radical new Western modes of thinking started making their way into China, such as Marxism.

"When we left Kitty Hawk at the end of 1901, we doubted that we would ever resume our experiments. Although we had broken the record for distance in gliding, and although Mr. Chanute, who was present at that time, assured us that our results were better than had ever before been attained, yet when we looked at the time and money which we had expended, and considered the progress made and the distance yet to go, we considered our experiments a failure. At this time I made the prediction that men would sometime fly, but that it would not be within our lifetime." - Wilbur Wright

1902 glider

"Quarry No. 1 contains (several bones) of a large Carnivorous Dinosaur... I have never seen anything like it..." - message from Barnum Brown while unearthing the first discovered Tyrannosaurus rex from the 65 million-year-old rocks of the Missouri Breaks in Montana.

1903

June 17 Ford Motor Company founded

In 1903, 12-inch records (30.5cm) are introduced, with four to five minutes of music per side.

The British author George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, b. Motihari, India, June 25, 1903.

The Wright Brothers built a larger version of their 1902 glider, and added propellors and power. On 14 December they tossed a coin to determine that Wilbur would be the pilot. A crew lugged the plane up a big hill and laid about 30 metres of monorail. The plane went too fast down the track, and Orville, running alongside to hold it steady, could not keep up. A wing hit the ground and the plane broke. However, the Wrights now knew that it would work.

In two days the plane had been repaired, and on 17th December 1903, the wind was right. It was Orville's turn to be pilot. They had realised it would be better to lay the track on flat ground, and Wilbur was able to remain running alongside keeping the right wing steady. The plane lifted off the monorail and flew for 12 seconds, travelling 120 feet (over 37 metres). It was the first controlled, sustained flight in a heavier-than-air craft.

The Washington Post Feb 28, 1904 reads "For the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, to be held at St. Louis, Mo., from April 30 to December 1, 1904, several forms of excursion tickets to St. Louis will be placed on sale by the Pennsylvania Railroad on April 25."

On July 23, 1904, according to some accounts, Charles E. Menches conceived the idea of filling a pastry cone with two scoops of ice-cream and thereby invented the ice-cream cone. He is one of several claimants to that honor: Ernest Hamwi, Abe Doumar, Albert and Nick Kabbaz, Arnold Fornachou, and David Avayou all have been touted as the inventor(s) of the first edible cone. Interestingly, these individuals have in common the fact that they all made or sold confections at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World's Fair. It is from the time of the Fair that the edible "cornucopia," a cone made from a rolled waffle, vaulted into popularity in the United States.

Elizabeth Magie patents The Landlord's Game, a precurser to the Monopoly board game. It is a realty and taxation game. Though many similar home-made games were played at the beginning of the 20th Century and some predate The Landlord's Game, it is the first of its kind to have an attested patent. Magie re-patented a revised edition of the game in 1924.

Magie based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate.

Cascades - Scott Joplin 1904 The early mass marketing of musical reproduction piano rolls marks the birth of modern commercial art? Scott Joplin's rags were written to be loosely improvised. Here is one rendition by the master himself in digital midi from a piano roll.

One tear that falls so furtivelyfrom her sweet eyes has just sprung,as if she envied all the youthswho laughingly passed her right by.What could I want more than this?She loves me! I see it.One moment just to hear her heart,beating so close next to mine,to hear my sighs like they were hers,her sighings as if they were mine!Heavens, please take me now:All that I wanted is mine now!

1905

The special theory of relativity is proposed by Albert Einstein in his article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies".

The preacher went out a huntin', it was on one Sunday morn'It was against his religion, but he took a shotgun alongHe got himself a mess o' mighty fine quail and one old scraggly hareAnd on the way home he crossed the path of a great big grizzly bearWell the bear got down lookin' ready to chargeThe preacher never seen nothin' quite that largeThey looked each other right smack in the eyeDidn't take that preacher long to say bye

The preacher, he run till he spotted a treeHe said, "Up in that tree's where I oughta be"By the time that bear made a grab for himThe preacher was a sittin' on top a that limbScared to death, he turned aboutHe looked to the sky and began to shout

"Hey lord, you delivered Daniel from the bottom of the lion's denYou delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale and thenThe Hebrew children from the fiery furnaceSo the good books do declareHey lord, if you can't help me,For goodness sake don't help that bear"

Yea, look out preacher!

Well, about that time the limb broke offAnd the preacher came tumblin' downHad a straight razor out of his pocketBy the time he lit on the groundHe landed on his feet right in front a that bearAnd Lord, what an awful fightThe preacher and the bear and the razor and the hairFlyin' from left to right

Well first they was up and then they was downThe preacher and the bear runnin' round an' roundThe bear he roared, and the the preacher he groanedHe was havin' a tough time holdin' his own!He said, "Lord if I get out a here aliveTo the good book I'll abideNo more huntin' on the Sabbath dayCome Sunday I'm headin' to the church to pray"

Up to the heavens the preacher glancedHe said, "Lord won't you give me just one more chance"So the preacher got away, he looked aroundSeen a tree where he'd be safe and soundJumped on a limb, turned aboutLooked to the sky and began to shout

"Hey lord, you delivered Daniel from the bottom of the lion's denYou delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale and thenThe Hebrew children from the fiery furnaceSo the good books do declareHey lord, if you can't help me,For goodness sake don't help that bear"

1905 Renault

1906

1906: The San Francisco Earthquake

The Story of the Kelly Gang is the world's first feature film. Originally there were no inter-titles; narration was performed by an on-stage lecturer who also provided sound effects including gunfire and hoofbeats.

Emanuel Heilronner is born in Germany to the Heilbronner family of soapmakers. (ref 1929)

The Model T sold for $850, which could be purchased using nine $100 National Bank Notes or 41 one ounce gold coins. Click here to see the Naked Ford chassis

46 stars

On July 4th, 1908, the U.S. flag grew to 46 stars with the addition to the Union of Oklahoma

Autumn of 1908 - Wright Brothers give public demonstation in France

September 17, 1908 Orville Wright invents the Plane Crash. US Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered fixed-wing aircraft when his aircraft, piloted by Orville Wright, crashed after propeller separation failure during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia. Selfridge died of a fractured skull. Wright suffered broken ribs, pelvis and a leg

Those of us who began our love labors at the operator's key 50 years ago have been permitted to see and assist in the whole modern industrial development of electricity. Since the remarkable experiments of Morse in 1844 and the unsuccessful efforts of Field in 1858 that have come with incredible rapidity – one electrical arc after another. So that in practically every respect civilization has been revolutionized.

It is still too early to stand outside these events and pronounce final judgement on their lasting value.

But we may surely entertain the belief that the last half of the 19th century was a distinct and distinct in its electrical inventions and the results of the first half was in relation to steam.

The lessons of the Jubilee of the Atlantic Cable of 1858 is one of encouragement to all who would act to the resources of our race and extend our control over the forces of Nature. Never was failure more complete, never was higher courage shown, never was triumph more brilliant than that which set 1866 has kept the old world moored alongside the new by cables of steel and copper, the family ties of the civilized world.

When I look around at the resources of the electrical field today I feel that I would be glad to begin again my work as an electrician and inventor and we veterans get only older than our successors, the younger followers of Franklin and of Tolbin to realize the measure of their opportunities and to rise to the heights of their responsibilities in this day of electricity."

I'm goin' down the river goin' down the riverGoin' to take my rockin' chairGoin' to the river goin' to take my rockin' chair

Blues overtake me, goin' to rock away from hereOh de Mississippi river, Mississippi river so deep and wideI said the Mississippi river's so deep and wide

Man I love he is on the other side

__________Note: originally titled "Mr. Crump", later also known as "Memphis Blues";Note 1: Mr. Crump, Edward H. Crump, a local Memphis political boss of the time. Crump asked Handy to play with his band in support of his campaign to become elected mayor of Memphis;Note 2: 'low, short for allow.